Judge, Jury, Executioner
by Cordria
Summary: The Observants and the Ghost Council are sick of the Fentons creating half-ghost creatures that disobey the rules of the universe. It's time for them to step in before more are made. Can Danny save his parents and keep his secret intact? A three-part fic.
1. Judge

_A short three-part fic. _

_Thanks Fiddlehoffer for an excellent beta job!_

* * *

**Judge  
**A Danny Phantom FanFiction by Cori

* * *

The dark hood vanished, filling my world with eye-watering brightness. I blinked furiously, trying to force my eyes to adjust, and jerked against the ropes holding my wrists tightly behind my back. _Where am I?_

The freezing, hard-as-ice fingers clamped around my arm dragged me forwards. I stumbled as the ground changed level without warning - stairs, perhaps. The fingers released with a sharp push and I fell to my knees. A loud clanging sound echoed through the room, followed by the click of a lock.

"There are supposed to be two of them," came a ghost's echoing, sneering voice.

My head jerked up, squinting through the glare. Vague shapes were starting to stand out against the blast of white. I tried to ignore the nagging ache in my head as I forced my breathing to remain slow and calm. My eyes would adjust to the light if I gave them a few seconds. Then I'd know where I was and how to get free.

"This was the only one there." The reply came from a ghost much closer to me. I glanced over my shoulder, barely able to make out a greenish blob behind me. It sounded somewhat military. _Am I surrounded?_ "The other is still being located."

There was a disappointed-sounding noise from the direction of the first voice.

I blinked hard, wishing I could wipe the tears from my eyes. My arms pulled against the ropes around my wrists again, hoping for a bit of looseness. _No luck._

"Human."

Assuming the ghost was speaking to me, I got to my feet and raised my chin. I could make out metal rods around me - I was in some sort of cage. My vague hopes of escape stuttered to a stop. The sound earlier must have been the door closing behind me. What a backwards situation: a human in a cage. A sneer attempted to curl at the corner of my mouth despite the fear thumping loudly in my veins. _Where am I? What's going on?_

"You are being charged with the crime of the creation of aberrations against nature. The first was overlooked - an accident of fate, perhaps. But now that there are two made from your foolish ignorance, something must be done."

The world came into focus. Before my cage sat in a large chair - a throne, almost - with an imperious-looking ghost seated in it. Turning my head, I could make out rows and rows of ghosts sitting in pews. I seemed to be in the middle of some sort of middle-ages-style government arena. Everything was glowing faintly - _am I in the ghost world?_ Turning my attention back to the main ghost, I stared into his red… eye?

My gaze flickered around the room again. All the ghosts in the room, with the exception of the green guards, only had one eye. And they were staring at me. A tingle of new unease swept down my spine. Between the ropes, the cage, and the hundreds of ghosts with their attention on me, I had no hope of fighting my way free.

"Do you understand, _human_?" It was speaking to me like I was a slow child.

I blinked at the ghost a few times and considered not answering, but the ghosts seemed to be content to stare in my direction. Licking my dry lips, I forced down a shiver of fear. I needed to bide my time until I found a better chance of escape. "No. Where am I?" My voice came out more confident than I felt.

The ghost ignored the question. An eyebrow twitched and its attention turned away from me. "Bring the creature in," it said haughtily, gesturing towards a pair of greenish guards.

Twin doors slammed open with a booming crash that made me jump. My heart pounding in my chest, I twisted around to watch a pile of ghosts paraded in, surrounding something much smaller and darker putting up a fight.

"Get your hands off me!" came a familiar snarl.

I stared as the ghosts pushed the squirming form to the front of their pack, holding him down with ropes and sharp objects pointed towards his face. _What's __Phantom__ doing here? _The ghost boy somehow managed to roll onto his back and land a solid kick to one of the guards despite their best efforts to keep him out of range. Seeing Amity Park's resident spook trussed up made my breath catch in my throat. In my experience with Phantom, the boy was many things - untamed, unpredictable, unsavory - but never controllable. _What have I gotten myself into?_

"See? Such a wild, unkempt creature," the one-eyed ghost said.

Phantom glanced up at the ghosts around us. "One-eyes," he greeted with a sarcastic smile. "Nice to see you again."

The one-eyed ghost sniffed contemptuously.

"Oh, great. I've been captured by the Mansons of the Ghost Zone," Phantom drawled. His gaze drifted to catch mine, his green eyes widening slightly.

I narrowed my eyes and raised my chin slightly. Even if I had no clue what was going on, I wasn't going to appear cowed by this.

"Why's there a human here?" Phantom asked. When the guards jerked on the ropes around his body, the teenage spirit allowed himself to be pulled into a seated position.

"She is being charged with the creation of an aberration of nature." The ghost straightened its shoulders.

Phantom went still.

I glanced from Phantom to the one-eyed ghost. _Charged? In some sort of court? _And that was the second time the ghost had brought up this aberration thing - _what does it mean?_

It yanked on its thick robes and continued smoothly, perfect nonchalance in it's posture and tone. "You, in other words, creature. The punishment for her is a thousand years of torment."

_Him? Charged with the creation of... Phantom?_ I stared at the young ghost, confusion edging into my mind. _What?_

The gleam in the boy's eyes turned absolutely murderous. "No," he said, his voice a dark growl. I couldn't quite suppress a shiver as cold swept through the room. "She's human, you can't-"

"You have no say in the matter," the one-eyed ghost said. "Gag the creature if it speaks to me again."

"You can't tell-" Phantom's words cut off as a bit of cloth was forced between his teeth and tied around the back of his head. He made a horrible collection of sounds through the gag, seeming to settle for sending a death glare at anyone who looked his way. Energy crackled around his body like lightning. The guards took a few more steps back, but kept their hold on the ropes holding him in place.

"Now," the ghost said, turning back to me. "Human. Do you have a name you prefer?"

I dragged my gaze from Phantom's trussed-up form, not processing the question that was asked. "I didn't _create_ him," I said, unable to stop my eyes from jumping back to the ghost. _What is going on?  
_

"That does not answer the question I asked."

I glanced around. Hundreds of ghosts stared down at me from the arena-shaped room. Letting out an unsteady breath and forcing myself to stand straight and tall, I turned my attention to the one-eyed ghost sitting on the large chair. I had to play this correctly if I wanted to see my family again. No matter what I was feeling on the inside, no matter how confused I was, I had to be the calm, collected ghost huntress on the outside. "Maddie Fenton," I answered. My voice didn't shake.

The ghost leaned back in its chair, pressing its fingertips together just below it's eyeball. "There. That wasn't so hard, was it, _human_?" The last word was layered with condescension.

Phantom made a rude-sounding noise from his place on the ground.

"To the evidence then, shall we?" The ghost made a gesture with its hand, and a blurry image of the Fenton Portal appeared in the air. "You created this device?"

I stared directly at the odd-looking ghost, trying to look in control of the situation. "Yes."

"The first humans to ever _intentionally_ create a rift between our worlds," it said. There was a small smirk on its face. "What an accomplishment."

Phantom made another noise through his gag. I glanced at him, noting that Phantom hadn't taken his glare off the other ghost.

"I don't understand," I said slowly. "What does the portal have to do with Phantom?"

"_That_," the ghost said, jabbing a finger at the image of the portal, "created _that_." This time the gesture was towards Phantom. "_That_," again at Phantom, "is an abhorrence. A wild monster. As you created _that_," the portal, "you are responsible for _that's_," the final gesture was towards Phantom, "existence."

_What?_ I stared at the one-eyed ghost. "My portal... created him?" My eyes trailed over to the ghost boy. He was making an almost audible growling noise by that point, his gaze focused on the main one-eyed ghost, Phantom's guards edging further away from him. "I don't-"

"Show the human," the ghost said with a bored sigh.

There was a pause as the guards glanced at each other, then Phantom made a strangled noise when the ropes around his neck tightened. The ghosts tried to drag him forwards using just the ropes, but Phantom was having none of that. He bucked and fought, managing to land enough hits on his guards to leave a trail of oozing ectoplasm behind him. Energy raced down the ropes, making several of the ghosts drop their hold.

Another ghost - this one tall, bone-white, with a large hat and jacket - stalked into the room. "Get control of the prisoner _now_," the ghost snapped, his voice heavy with a southern drawl.

Phantom went still at the ghost's words, crouched on the ground, his green eyes watching the new arrival carefully. It was a sort of wary respect, I realized with a start. This new ghost wasn't a creature to be trivialized. My nonexistent chance of escape dropped another notch.

One of the guards grabbed hold of Phantom's arm and pulled him the rest of the way to my cage. From this close, I could see the swirling energy in his eyes. Worry, anxiety, and helpless anger filled them. When the guard jerked on Phantom's arm, yanking off the glove and forcing Phantom's hand over so I could see the palm, I stared down at the boy's hand. A strange scar marred the palm his hand; spiderweb-like patterns traced over his wrist and under his sleeve. "What is that?" I whispered.

Phantom's eyes narrowed, his jaw jutting out slightly as he set his teeth into the grimy gag.

"How did you die?" I asked him, knowing he wouldn't be able to answer. He blinked a few times, pulling back against the guards' grasp, trying to get away from me. Things clicked together in my head. The boy's creation. The ghost's questions about our portal. "The portal."

The boy's expression wavered for a second before hardening again. But it was all the answer I needed.

The portal's abrupt 'working' status was a long-standing mystery in our house. Jack thought it had simply taken hours to properly warm up after we plugged it in. That theory had holes though, and I had always been sure Danny knew what had happened that day. Although he refused to talk about it, the child had suffered from nightmares for weeks after the portal turned on…

Phantom had... died. In our basement. Danny's nightmares took on a very dark and nauseating tone.

Unable to tear my gaze away from the teenager the ghosts were claiming died in my basement, my heart stuttered in my chest. The last pieces quickly fell into place:_ I'm on trail for murder._

"Tell me how he died," I demanded, trying to force back the fear that was making the hairs on my neck stand on end. _The punishment is a__ thousand years of torment. _I had to stay calm. I had to think this through. I needed to use logic to-

The one-eyed ghost snorted derisively. "Human, if he would have _died_, we wouldn't be here going through this farce of a trial."

"What?" I turned around, staring at the ghost in confusion. "He's a _ghost_. He had to have died-"

"It's such a _stupid_ creature," it said with a sneer, "that it couldn't even die properly."

Phantom made such an odd noise that I glanced over at him. His eyes were tightly closed, his arms shaking.

"I don't understand," I repeated, desperately searching for shreds of sense in what the ghost was saying. "He's a ghost. You said the portal-"

The one-eyed ghost got to its feet and interrupted my question. "I don't care anymore. The council will now deliberate the charges against you, although do understand that the evidence against you is overwhelming and damning. You _will_ be found guilty. Take them away."

The guards jerked on the ropes holding Phantom in place. Phantom's eyes glowed with a eerie, horrible green I'd never seen before. I flinched backwards, startled at the raw, furious look on his face.

He spun around, snapping several of the ropes. There was horse yelling and the splatter of green as Phantom blew through the guards on his way towards the dais where the one-eyed ghost was sitting. The contemptuous ghost shrieked as Phantom made it through the ring of guards and raced towards it -

A black hand - a _huge_ black hand - appeared in my vision. It flicked through the air, slammed into Phantom, and sent him spiraling into a wall. His body hit with an audible crack. He slumped to the ground, seemingly unconscious.

It all happened in a moment. My heart hadn't even had time to start racing.

I tore my eyes away from Phantom, staring up and up and up at the white-bone ghost. He had grown significantly - his head now brushed the ceiling. The ghost crossed his arms over his chest, nodded in an oddly respectful way to the one-eyed onlookers, then stalked towards the door, shrinking as he went. The twin doors slammed shut behind him, leaving the room in silence.

The main one-eyed ghost picked itself up. Phantom hadn't come within feet of it, but it still looked pained and disheveled. "Take them away!" it shrieked again. "_Now_, you incompetent fools!"

Several of the guards were lying on the floor, not moving, thick pools of green seeping around their forms. A few of the braver ones crept towards Phantom's body, grabbing his still-trussed arms and hauling him out a side door. Two more stepped up to my cage. There was a rattle of keys, then the door opened. "Come with me, human," one of the guards said.

I stood still a long moment, staring at the door Phantom had vanished through. Fear and confusion warred in my head.

"Human," the guard repeated.

Not letting my conflicting emotions cross my face, I stepped out of the cage. I forced myself to hold my head high and calm - a powerful ghost huntress - as ice-hard fingers curled around my arm and I was pushed in the same direction as the ghost boy.

* * *

They took me to a medieval sort of jail cell. The ropes on my wrists were removed before the door slammed shut with a resounding _bang_. Greenish, glowing stones formed every wall except the front where the entrance was. Thick, glowing bars criss-crossed the small opening.

I wasn't alone. Phantom was lying on the ground near the back wall, his glove still missing and a dark green, awful-looking bruise colored his temple. Nobody had bothered to remove the gag or the ropes.

I gazed at him, not moving from my place at the door. Phantom had been an odd, but somewhat steady presence in Amity Park for two years. With few rare exceptions, the ghost was predictable in one aspect of his existence: he didn't attack humans. Ghost fighting was his M.O. Of all the ghosts in the universe, this was perhaps the safest one for me to be locked in a cell with. At least, until he got hungry.

Making my way over to the opposite wall from the ghost, I sank to the ground and tried to force the confusion clogging my brain into a working state. I needed an escape plan. And an escape plan would only be possible once I understood the situation I was in.

Facts. Listing facts had always helped in the past.

I was in some sort of ghostly court, likely trapped within the depths of the ghost world. That was fact one. I forced down the shiver of fear at the idea of being unarmed and surrounded by an infinite amount of dead spirits, then ran a hand over my face. I didn't have the time to go into a panic attack. I had to think. What other facts did I know?

Fact two: the ghosts claimed I had murdered Phantom.

That thought brought my mind to a dead halt for a long second. Closing my eyes, I breathed in and out, slowly and deeply, as I let the idea settle into my head. I swallowed heavily, then pushed the thought away. I could deal with the emotional ramifications of that later. Right now, I had to think logically. Dispassionately.

My gaze drifted over to the teenage ghost. I wrapped my arms around my knees. Had I really taken part in the death of this young man?

Again, I had to wrench my thoughts away from the topic. Sitting and stewing on something that might have happened several years ago wasn't helpful. I needed to focus on the here and now.

_Aberration._ The ghosts kept calling him that. _If it would have died... it couldn't even die properly._ What did those comments mean? Could the ghosts somehow consider Phantom to be... alive in some way? I stared at the unconscious ghost, confused. His current state, in and of itself, was strange. Ghosts didn't have a consciousness; it wasn't possible for them to _be_ unconscious.

Fact three: if I didn't get out of this place soon, the ghosts were going to condemn me to some terrible Hell-hole for the rest of my life.

I scowled and curled my fingers into fists, fighting back another wave of terror at the thought. I let out an unsteady breath and racked my mind for something positive. Something that would get me out of here and home to my family.

I found myself staring at the ghost again. Fact four: I was trapped in a cell with a ghost who had shown himself to be somewhat friendly towards humans in the past and, on a positive twist, probably knew more about what was going on than I did. All I needed to do was keep this ghost on my side. Maybe he really did have some sort of saving-people obsession like he regularly claimed, rather than just the territorial, fiery temper.

There was little else I could do: I was going to have to - tentatively - place my life in the hands of the enemy. In the hands of someone I might have gotten killed.

I stayed in my spot, getting control of my emotions. Calm. Cool. Collected. I had to be in charge of the situation from the moment I woke the ghost up - it was my only hope for escape. After a long minute, I got to my feet and drifted across the stone floor to sit beside the ghost. I shook his shoulder. "Hey, Gho- Phantom."

The ghost's intense green eyes flashed open. He stared at me uncomprehendingly before letting out a stifled noise.

"Hang on," I said quietly, helping him to sit up and then reaching for the gag's knot. The ghost held perfectly still as I tugged at the old cloth. "There." The gag fell away.

Phantom spit a few times as I worked on the ropes tied around him, then he rubbed his tongue on the back of a hand. "That tasted disgusting," he grumbled, reaching for the fabric to study it. "I hope this wasn't underwear in a previous life." There was a flash of green. I glanced at the fabric in time to watch it crumble to dust. "Thanks," he said, still rubbing at his tongue now and then.

I kept back the flinch at the ghost's display of raw power - a reminder that he could destroy me just as easily. My heart thudded loudly in my chest. "Any idea where we are?" I asked, trying to stay as calm as possible as I forced my eyes away from the burned bits of fabric.

"Jail cell, looks like," he said, getting to his feet and walking over to the bars. He rattled them, causing one of the greenish guards to hover over and glare at us. When the ghost vanished again, he turned to look at me. "How'd you get caught by the ghosts, anyways?"

The distance between us settled my heart rate a bit. With the one exception early in his existence, the ghost hadn't so much as threatened me. I highly doubted he would start now. "I don't know," I said. I remembered being in my lab, then a vague memory of swirling green, and then I was suddenly being escorted into that room - but I didn't feel the need to explain my memory lapse to the ghost boy. "What about you?"

The ghost glanced at me and a sardonic grin slid onto his face. "Some sort of long-distance dart with a knock-out drug. They're not stupid enough to take me on fairly. Have you tried getting out yet?"

"Through the metal bars, or through the solid stone?" I asked sourly.

He glanced at me sidelong with a 'duh' look in his eyes. "You're the human. Humans can phase through solid matter in the ghost zone."

I stared at him a long second. "Really?" I breathed. "That sounds too easy."

A shrug was my answer. "Ghosts don't think much about humans. I highly doubt they made a special human-proof cell just for you. Try it." He curled his hands around the glowing metal bars and pressed his face to them, apparently trying to see down the hallway.

Two steps brought me to the stone. It was cold and solid and felt somewhat fizzy against my skin.

"Imagine it's not real," he prompted. I glanced over my shoulder. He was leaning against the bars, arms crossed and head tipped as he watched me. "It's made out of ectoplasm, right? Ghost stuff. It doesn't exist on the same plane of existence as you. It's only solid because you think it is."

"I know the theory," I muttered, turning to look back at the stone. "I _wrote_ the theory, you know."

"I know," he answered. I could hear the grin in his voice. "You're the world's best posthuman scientist."

Ignoring the taunt, I closed my eyes and tried to force my mind into the right sort of thoughts. The wall wasn't there. Well, it _was_, but it was made out of plasma - closer to a gas or a liquid. I could walk through the wall just as easily as walking through water or air. The only thing keeping it in a proto-solid state was the slight electromagnetic field that was buzzing against my nerves.

The wall disappeared. I pushed my hand through, feeling a grin on my face - _this is it! I'm free!_

And then my hand hit something hard. Feeling around, I curled my fingers around more bars. I opened my eyes to the strange sight of my hand seemingly disappearing through a wall. "There's metal bars," I said. "Just a few inches in."

I walked around the tiny cell, letting my fingers trail over the hidden bars in the walls. They were about six inches apart in all the walls. _Another cage. Great._ The tiny moment of exhilaration faded - escape from inside this cell wasn't likely. Something would have to happen when they were escorting me in the hallways.

"Well," Phantom said as he dropped into a seated position by the door, rubbing at the dark greenish bruise on his head, "it was worth a try."

"They made a jail cell just for me?" I asked, incredulous, but a tiny bit proud. The ghosts were afraid enough of Jack and me than they built a special cell just to house us?

Phantom snorted. "Nah, it's more likely for…" he trailed off. When I glanced at him, he shrugged and flushed. "Any human," he ended.

It didn't sound like the ending he'd originally planned, but I let it go. I stared at the ceiling, wondering if the ghosts had bothered to put bars there as well. Probably, since ghosts weren't limited to human's two-dimensional coordinate grid. "Any other bright ideas?"

"Wait for rescue."

I stopped and turned to stare at him. The ghost smiled and pulled his sleeve back, showing me a watch. A watch I recognized. "You stole that!" Jack had long believed the ghosts were stealing our technology - but this was the first piece of proof.

"It had an inch of dust on it and had fallen behind a table," Phantom said with a wave of his hand. The scar on his palm looked gruesome in the greenish tint of the ghost world. "It's a rescue beacon and neither of you ever wore it - Jack probably didn't even remember he _designed_ it. At least I'm putting it to good use."

Reminding myself to focus on the real problem, I let the argument go. "I want that back when we're out of here," I said.

His shrug and uncaring, "Sure," wasn't exactly what I wanted.

"How long until this _rescue_ gets here?"

He shrugged again, pulling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around his legs. "Whenever someone sees that the beacon's been activated, then tracks our location down, then figures out how to get in here, then frees us. Could take a while, I guess." He rested his chin on his knees. "Couple hours."

I didn't feel like commenting on the fact that Phantom had just said his 'rescuers', whoever they were, would be able to mount a mission against all these ghosts in _just_ a couple of hours. That would be a tall order for a highly-trained special ops force, much less whatever random beings Phantom had managed to pull together. Instead of voicing my disbelief, I sank to the ground, crossed my legs, and leaned my back against the wall. It was 'solid' again - or it was until that thought flittered across my mind. My head suddenly dropped a few inches through the stone to slam against the metal bars. "Ow," I hissed, rubbing at my head and blinking some stars from my eyes.

Phantom nodded in sympathy. "It's better not to think about it," he suggested blandly. "The less you think about it, the less crazy stuff happens."

I sighed and contented myself with sitting upright.

"It's worse when you start to think about the floor and what you're actually sitting on," he continued, like he was talking to himself.

I glanced down just as the formerly-solid ground disintegrated around me. I fell several inches before landing on the bars placed in the stone. I gingerly got to my feet, standing on metal bars I couldn't see, and shot Phantom a venomous glare.

"Huh," he said, tipping his head to the side with a small smile on his face. "They did put bars under the ground. Suppose they did the ceiling too, then."

"Suppose so," I said through gritted teeth.

Phantom let his small smile grow. "Oh, come on. How often do I get a chance to watch _other_ people fall through the floor?" He got up and walked over to me, holding out his hand. "Give a kid a few minutes of enjoyment."

"You're not a kid," I muttered as I slapped his hand away. I could solve my own problems.

"Ghost of a kid," he corrected gamely, settling down cross-legged in mid-air, his head resting on the arm propped against his knee.

"Are you just going to hover there?"

With an overly-dramatic turn of his head, he chirped, "I'm locked in a cage, if it hadn't passed your notice."

I closed my eyes, trying to imagine a _solid_ step in front of me so I could stand on the ground again. Trying to believe that the ground was solid enough to walk on - it had held my weight for all the time I'd been here.

"Bet your dreams of getting me locked in a cage never quite went like this," he commented.

I took a confident step forwards and was rewarded with the feel of ground beneath my foot. I made sure both my feet were on solid ground before opening my eyes. "No," I answered. "My dreams never went like this."

"How do they go?"

The thought of answering him honestly crossed my mind a moment; I couldn't remember a single dream of catching Phantom in a cage and running experiments on him. Other ghosts, sure. But my dreams regarding this ghost generally took darker turns. A lot of me begging for answers, from what I could remember. Greens and blues and reds.

But this was a ghost. I didn't need to tell him anything of that sort. "Dissections. Experimentations. Lots of screaming and yelling on your part," I told him, keeping my voice bland.

He didn't have a returning quip. When I glanced at him, he looked a bit paler than usual. I had to bite back a moment of guilt - if I had inadvertently caused the boy's death, than I certainly didn't need to rub his nose in his current state of being.

I slowly settled down to the ground, training my gaze on the ghost. "Since we're stuck here, I need some information."

Green eyes cut over to mine and narrowed slightly. "Why would I want to tell you anything?" he asked shortly. It was like something had closed off in his mind. The ghost that had been smiling and making sarcastic comments was gone.

"You were up for talking a few minutes ago," I said quietly.

He hummed and settled his feet back on the ground. Twisting around, he stalked over to a corner and sat down, chin resting on his arms, staring out into the hallway. A picture of a teenager who'd had his feelings hurt.

I was all for letting him pout, but my mind was belatedly reminding me that I needed to stay on this ghost's good side. We were trapped in a jail cell in the middle of the ghost world. He was - at the moment - my best chance of escape. I would have to put up with his poltergeist-like tendencies with a bit more grace.

I bit back a sigh as I realized what I would have to do. "I'm sorry," I said.

His eyes jerked over to mine. "What?"

"I didn't think you'd take it that hard," I said, keeping my voice steady and unstrained, despite the ludicrous fact that I was _apologizing_ to a ghost. "I'm sorry."

Very slowly, his head tipped to the side. He squinted at me in silence, making me wonder what was he seeing. "Okay," he finally said. "Apology accepted." His body seemed to relax, the expression on his face becoming more open.

Another ghost stalked by outside the cell. The greenish glow from its body cast odd shadows through the bars. Both of us watched him walk past before turning our attention back on the other. I didn't say anything. I wanted him to speak first, for conversation to feel like it was _his_ idea. He'd be more likely to answer my questions that way.

His "What did you want to know?" came at almost the exact moment I thought it would. He scratched a hand through his hair, wincing slightly when it brushed against the bruise.

I had a million questions to ask, but I needed to stick to the ones that would help me escape. And, since I really needed to keep this ghost happy, I'd have to stay away from questions that would get him angry. That narrowed down the potential list of questions to a rather small list. "What was that place with the one-eyed ghosts?"

He licked at his lips. "Um… kinda like a government. Those one-eyed ghosts are called the Observants. They…" he trailed off, then shrugged. "They observe, I guess. They watch everything that happens and make rules and laws and stuff."

My earlier assumptions had been right. "And punish anyone that breaks a rule," I added.

"Walker does, mostly on their command," he agreed. He shifted slightly on the stone floor.

"Who's Walker?" I already figured I knew. The bone-ghost with the black hat.

Phantom let a shoulder creep up. "The tall, white one with the cowboy hat."

I nodded; I'd been right. "Run into him before?"

It was his turn to nod. A dark shadow swept through his eyes.

I wanted to ask him about it, but I bit my tongue and tried to come up with a different question. It was unlikely the ghost would want to talk about it. "What rule did I break?"

He tensed. Even his hair seemed to stand up a bit straighter. "None," he answered shortly, looking away from me.

"Those ghosts seem to disagree with you," I commented.

"Doesn't matter."

"Yeah, it kind of does," I disagreed. I gestured around the cell and deliberately copied his comment from earlier. "I'm locked in a cage, if it hadn't passed your notice."

A tiny smile crept onto his lips for a moment for fading again. He looked at me through his bangs, seeming to study my expression for the longest time. A deep breath went into his chest, then slowly slipped back out. "_You_ didn't break the rules," he amended after a moment. "If anyone did, it was me."

"What rule?"

There was the longest time without an answer. I was about to give up and find something else to ask, when he finally spoke. "It's not a _rule_, exactly. It's probably not even written down anywhere."

"That doesn't tell me why I'm here," I said.

"I know," he muttered. His knees crept up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them tightly. "I don't want to talk about it."

It took a sincere act of will to prevent my teeth from grinding together. _ I can't accept that. I need to know what's really going on. _"What are the chances of them finding me innocent?" I asked, my tone sharp. I wasn't sure guilt would work on a ghost - but it was my best weapon at the moment and worth a try. Threatening was out until I got some sort of weapon, and bribing and begging were distasteful options for when everything else failed.

He looked up at me, apparently startled by my tone of voice. "None," he said hesitantly. "You're human - they don't care about you. They're just using you to prove a point."

"What's going to happen to me then?" I stared straight into his inhuman eyes.

The green mist in his eyes swirled a little faster. "They'll lock you up for a thousand years," he whispered.

"I'll die long before that," I said with a cruel twist to my voice. "I happen to know something about this world. The acidic air is eating at my lungs, and by tomorrow it'll have reached the point where I'll be coughing up blood. There's no human food or water here, so I'll dehydrate and starve while drowning in my own blood."

He winced and looked away.

"I'm going to be dead in three days, at the most," I said, fighting to keep my tone level despite the sharp rise in my heart rate. My palms were sweating and my throat felt dry. "And you won't tell me what I'm going to die for."

"We'll be rescued before-" he started.

"_If_ someone finds the beacon. _If_ they can get in here. _If_ they can do all of this before those ghosts decide my fate and put me somewhere your friends can't get to." I closed my eyes, reigning in my temper and reminding myself - repeatedly - that I needed this ghost to save my life. I needed to stay calm. "There's a lot of 'if's in those thoughts."

He was quiet, unable to look in my general direction.

"Don't you owe me _some_ sort of explanation?"


	2. Jury

_Sorry for slow updates - life has been insane the past few weeks and this needed lots of work._

_Second part of a three-piece fic._

* * *

**Jury  
**A Danny Phantom FanFiction by Cori

* * *

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

I glanced at the newcomer that had interrupted my conversation with Phantom. It was a ghost. An extremely familiar ghost at that. But before I could speak, Phantom was on his feet, hands clenched into fists. "Go away, Plasmius," he snapped.

"Make me, boy," the vampiric ghost shot back. "Or are you on the wrong side of the bars?"

Phantom's body was shaking, anger making his eyes glow. "What do you want?"

"Not you," the ghost said dismissively as his red eyes turned to me. A smile lit his pale face and small fangs stood out against his lips. "Maddie, my dear. How are you doing?"

The ghost's use of my name made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. There was nothing pleasant in this ghost's file - in fact, someone had written 'must avoid' in large, red letters across the front. I kept my tone hard when I spoke. "I prefer Dr. Fenton, if you must use my name."

"Of course, of course," he was quick to assure, his clawed fingers waving dismissively. "I'll get to the point, shall I, Dr. Fenton?" His smile was huge.

"I'd rather you just left," Phantom muttered. "Isn't it enough that I'm locked in a cell without having to listen to your voice?"

Plasmius shot Phantom a dark glare before turning back to me. "I am in a unique position to remove you from captivity," the older ghost said, his voice calm. "I can get the charges against you dropped."

I blinked, startled. _He can get me out of here? _

"Jack too?" Phantom asked sharply.

The vampire-ghost froze, then let out a slow breath. "Charges would be dropped on both of them, of course," he said through his teeth.

Although the total conversations I'd ever had with this ghost amounted to less than thirty seconds, I already didn't trust a word that came from his mouth. Too many of his mannerisms reminded me of Jack's oily college friend, Vlad Masters. Quick to lie, full of half-truths, and far too much leer in his gaze when he looked at me. _...Can I trust him long enough to get free?_

Despite those thoughts, it was hard to bypass what the ghost was offering. I would be dead within seventy-two hours if I stayed here.

"And what would you charge for this _friendly_ bit of help?" Phantom snapped.

"Her? Very little." The ghost raised his chin up an inch. "A good-will offering from a local ghost to an important ghost hunter." His grin turned darker. "Perhaps a look-the-other-way the next time we meet in her world. Maybe a little something more, if the need arises."

I narrowed my eyes as Phantom snorted derisively. _A little something more?_ _What could that mean?_ As much as I hated to agree with any ghost, my instincts were on Phantom's side of this conversation. Nothing about this ghost made me think I could trust him long enough to flip a coin, much less free me.

"_You_, on the other hand," the ghost continued smoothly, still talking to Phantom, "can sit in here and rot. The Observants will find you guilty of being a… what did they call you? An 'aberration of nature'? Maybe they will finally have you fixed."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Phantom freeze and go deathly pale - a unique trick for a ghost. "What do you mean by 'fixed'?" I asked, breaking into the conversation. I was still searching for information as to what was going on. If Phantom wouldn't talk, perhaps I could get something out of this new ghost.

"You are a _brilliant_ scientist," Plasmius said smoothly as his grin grew lecherous. I had to force down a shiver. "Think it through. What is the main difference between the living and the dead?"

"A body," I answered, raising my chin in defiance of his stare. No _ghost_ could make me feel uncomfortable in my own skin.

The ghost cut a hand through the air in a negative gesture at my answer. "Nonsense. You find living and dead bodies all over the place."

"The dead ones are mostly your doing," Phantom muttered under his breath.

I glanced at Phantom, his comment causing a crawling sensation up my spine, then turned back at Plasmius. The ghost was still staring at me, waiting for a better answer. He had the same aura of eternal patience around him that the one-eyed ghosts had possessed. "Living people have a… a life force," I said, staring into Plasmius's red eyes. _Have you really murdered people, ghost? Or is Phantom trying to turn me against you?_ "I guess you could call it a spirit, or a soul."

"Precisely," the ghost hissed, pleased. "Regardless of the state of the body, it is the _soul_ that determines the difference between life and death. A body can be brain dead - soulless - despite still breathing and going through chemical processes. Surely it can be said the other way around as well, can it not?" He went quiet, his red eyes staring into mine.

_What? What does that mean?_

"Plasmius," Phantom said, "go away."

"I'm not here for you, Badger," Plasmius said without breaking eye contact with me. The mist in his eyes swirled and sparkled, soulless and bloody and inhuman. The image of blood in his eyes made goosebumps appear on my arms, unable to shake the feeling that I was talking to an untrustworthy murderer, but I wasn't willing to stop the conversation. Someone was giving me information that I needed to get free of this jail cell - I could only hope he was telling me the truth.

I stood still, slowly processing through what the ghost had said. _The other way around? Not a soulless human, but a... _"Are you saying there's such a thing as a ghost with a soul?"

"Plasmius!" Phantom said sharply.

A grin spread across the ghost's features. "It'd be weird if something like that existed, wouldn't it? Abnormal. Against the rules." The red eyes slid from my face to the teenage ghost in a far corner vibrating in anger - or fear. "An… _aberration_, wouldn't you say?"

My brain couldn't process what those words meant. _What?_

"Regardless. We are back to the fact that there are two ways for you to get out of this _dreadful_ situation alive." Plasmius turned his attention back to me, running a hand through his hair like a used car salesman about to close a deal. "One: you allow me to rescue you. Although I do warn you; the longer you wait, the steeper the price. Or two: the brat over there stops breaking the rules. I'm sure it would be easier to procure your release when there are no _aberrations_ lounging about."

"Or three," Phantom spat, "my friends will come rescue us."

At the sound of Phantom's voice, I turned to stare at him. The way his eyes sparkled in fury. How his hands were clenched into fists. I was too caught up in my own thoughts to pay much attention to what the ghosts were saying, my mind flitting through the memories of all those odd things I had never been able to explain about Phantom. _A ghost with a soul? Is that even possible?_

Plasmius shrugged, slow and elegant. "Perhaps. Or perhaps your _secret _remote beacon isn't transmitting nearly as well as you think it is."

Phantom scrambled for his watch, tearing it from his wrist in an attempt to see what it said. He stared down at it with a startled and furious look growing on his face. "What did you do to it?" he hissed.

Jack and I had spent months debating the reason for Phantom's too-human-like emotions. It was like I'd been handed the key to a map; Phantom's impossible mood swings suddenly made sense. His regard for human life suddenly made sense. How he was always around humans suddenly made sense. _But is it even possible? _

"Absolutely nothing, I'm sure," Plasmius said. "I'll be back in an hour, shall I? Give you time to think over my offer?"

"My friends will find me," Phantom said. "They'll notice I'm missing and-"

_A ghost with a soul._ I tore my eyes away from Phantom to stare at Plasmius._ Is he telling me the truth, or just a lie that conveniently fills in the blanks?_

"And what," Plasmius interrupted, his ever-present smile vanishing as he turned his attention to the irate teenager. "They'll manage to track you down before our dear _Dr. Fenton_ is dead? They'll fight their way to the center of the ghost world, surviving against all odds and millions of ghosts, when they won't even know for sure you're in here?" The ghost snapped its fingers, causing Phantom to flinch. "Be realistic, boy. You're sixteen. Surely you have a brain in there somewhere."

Phantom kept up the furious glare. "Go away," he snapped.

Plasmius gazed at him blandly. "I hold all the cards, Little One. Remember that." His eyes flicked back to mine and the smile reappeared. "An hour, Dearest." He tipped his head and sauntered down the hallway and out of view.

I turned around and leaned against the bars, thoughts swirling in my brain. _Can I trust him? Can he free me? Is he telling the truth about Phantom somehow having a soul?_

"I'm going to kill him," Phantom whispered, the lights in his eyes flickering and flashing and sparkling. "The first thing I'm doing when I get out of here is _rip his head from his shoulders_." Then his gaze jumped from the now-empty hallway to me. The anger evaporated, his eyes filling with anxiety. His mouth moved a few times, apparently trying to find something to say.

_Ghosts don't feel anxiety. _"Oh, my God." I slowly sat down, not even caring if the floor was solid or not. I couldn't tear my eyes off him.

He flinched at the words, scooted further back against the walls into the corner, and buried his head back in his arms. It was all the answer I needed to a question I hadn't even asked: he was raising a white flag, giving up, and letting me in on the big secret. _Plasmius was telling the truth? _

"He... Plasmius..." I trailed off, not knowing what to say. "I... I..."

Phantom shook his head, keeping his face hidden by his arms. Able to see nothing but the top of his head, I could only guess at the thoughts running through the young ghost's mind.

My own thoughts, however, weren't such a mystery. My mind was spinning, unable to settle onto one thought long enough for it to be helpful. I still couldn't believe that this ghost in front of me… might not actually be one. Even if it made a strange sort of sense. Even if Phantom was confirming what Plasmius had said.

_It's just not possible. Right? _

"You… you still have a soul?" I managed to say.

The boy's shoulders rose towards his ears.

"I…" Very slowly, not entirely sure what I was doing, I got to my feet. I walked across the small cell to crouch in front of the ghost. The aberration. The… child? My hand came up and gently touched his tense shoulders.

The boy flinched away from me so violently he almost tipped over. His alien eyes were wide as he scooted several feet away from me, his breath catching in his throat. His eyes were red. He'd been fighting back tears. "Don't…" he whispered.

"I'm not going to hurt you," I said softly. _Ghosts can't cry_. _They lack both the physiological and psychological structures necessary for it.  
_

The green eyes narrowed, the mist in them slowing its erratic whirling. "I'm supposed to trust you?" he asked. His voice sounded raw and strained. "Mrs. Dissect and Experiment and Whatever?"

"I'm sorry," I said. The sentiment had gone quite a ways the last time, and this time I actually meant it. "I promise. I'm not trying to hurt you."

His arms came back up around his knees. He stared at me. "What do you want?" he asked, sounding defeated and broken.

"The ghost… Plasmius…" I bit my lip. There was a reason _this_ ghost was different from the others - the reason I was in this cell. I had to know. "Was he telling the truth? About you?"

There was silence as his shoulders crept up to his ears again, then a soft, "Yeah." Looking insecure, he turned away from me to stare out the bars of our cell. "This isn't how I wanted you to find out." Under his breath, he added, "_Nobody_ was supposed to find out."

_But... _"Don't the ghosts know? Isn't that why we're here?"

"It's hard to keep it a secret from _them_," he said sourly.

"Why?"

He looked at me. It was far too easy to imagine life behind those swirling, alien eyes. Despite the doubts still whispering in my mind, I was starting to believe him. _A ghost with a soul. That's... _

He was quiet, seeming to weigh the answer in his mind, then said, "Could you tell the difference between someone with a soul and without one? Someone that's alive and someone that's brain dead?"

"Probably. I've never tried."

"Same for ghosts, I guess," he said with a little shrug, staring out into the hallway. "They can tell."

Silence settled between us as I stared at the strange boy. A living ghost. _I almost wish Jack was here. He'd know what to think about this. _My eyes trailed down to the hands that were wrapped around his knees. The scar stood out on the hand without the glove. The one-eyed ghosts, the Observants, had shown me that scar as an answer to my question of how the portal... My thoughts tumbled to a stop.

Even though I hadn't moved or made any noise, the boy jerked and looked up at me. "What's wrong?"

_I 'created' a ghost with the portal._

___I'm on trial for murder._

_I killed him.  
_

"Maddie? Dr. Fenton?" By the time I managed to focus on Phantom, he had unwrapped his arms from his legs and was kneeling next to me, gently shaking my shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Did you really die in my basement?" I whispered. Horror crept up into my mind, despite my best efforts at pushing it back. Logically, I knew I didn't have time to deal with an emotional outburst - I needed to get free, then I could have a mental breakdown over unintentionally killing a child. Logic had helped me remain calm for the better part of the past hour.

But logic wasn't working any more. Not now that I was mostly convinced the boy had a soul. That he was, in that respect, still alive. And that I had...

That I had...

My hands were shaking. I held black belts in three forms of martial arts. I had survival training from some of the best in the world. I was a huntress, a predator, and proud of it. And I killed a child.

"I didn't really die," he said. He was still holding onto my shoulder, his green eyes looking worried. He was probably trying to sound soothing. "That's kinda why we're here."

His logic wasn't helping. Being eternally trapped as a ghost with a soul was - at least to me - worse than death. "You got into an accident. In my basement. In my lab. That turned you into a ghost." My mouth was dry, my voice cracking. _How could I have been so careless?_

"Yeah, I suppose so," he answered. "It's not a big deal."

"Not a big deal?" I whispered in disbelief. "Let me see your hand."

He drew away from me. His gaze jumped from my face to my outstretched hand and back several times before he slowly unclenched his fingers and held out the requested appendage. "It doesn't hurt anymore."

Pulling one of my gloves off, I touched his hand with my bare skin. His arm felt normal, just cold. Ghosts couldn't do 'squishy'; their skin was either as hard as brick or as ephemeral as fog. If I closed my eyes, I never would have guessed that I was touching one. The boy, impossibly, had distinct layers of muscle and bone and skin. It was the last nail in the 'he's just a ghost' coffin - even though I still didn't understand how a ghost with a soul was possible. _He's definitely not a normal ghost._ I let out a slow, shaking breath. _Oh, Jack_. _What have we done to this boy?_

"Maddie?" he asked.

My fingers trailed to the scar marring his palm. Although it looked horrendous, it seemed to be more of a discoloration - a tattoo, almost - than a real injury. There was something reassuring about knowing he wasn't in everlasting pain.

"Your portal turned on when I was in it," he said, his voice quiet as I examined his hand. "I touched some wires, or something. Apparently when you die inside an opening portal, something goes wrong."

I didn't know what to say to that. I didn't know how to begin apologizing. I didn't have the faintest clue if I could fix this.

He pulled his hand back, wrapping it back around his legs and resting his chin on his knees. "Why do you care?"

I blinked, finally finding something to say. "_Care_? Of course I _care_ that you got hurt in my lab! I-"

"No," he interrupted, shaking his head, "I get _that_. It's just…" He gestured around him. "Don't you kind of have something bigger to worry about right now?"

I stared at the bars of the jail cell, not really seeing them. "You almost died in my basement. I've been hunting you - a ghost with a _soul_ - for more than two years. And-"

"And you're going to be dead in three days."

The words brought my whirling thoughts to an abrupt stop. "True," I admitted. I focused on the bars blocking my escape. "True," I repeated, this time softer.

Phantom chuckled. "You didn't forget, did you?"

I closed my eyes, trying to stuff my emotions back into the corner of my mind. I needed logic right now. I needed to escape this strange jail, then I could deal with the repercussions of what I was learning. None of those facts would be important if I didn't survive long enough to use them. I wouldn't be able to make it up to the boy if I didn't get out of here. I needed to be the calm, cool, and logical huntress I'd spent years training to be.

That partial release of emotions was just enough to get my mind back under control. I breathed in and out a few times, letting my heart rate slow and my blurred thoughts to focus on the task at hand: escape.

Opening my eyes, I chewed on my lip, thinking through what to do. There was one very easy option for escape at the moment. "That ghost, Plasmius, he can-"

"No." Phantom jerked to his feet and stalked away from me.

"Your rescue beacon isn't working," I reminded him. Both of us glanced towards the watch lying on the ground. "Nobody's coming."

"Then we'll get out on our own," he said stubbornly.

"There's a million ghosts out there-"

"I don't care," he interrupted. "I'm not having anything to do with… _him_."

There were obviously dark undertones to the relationship between the boy and the ghost. Although my instincts were screaming to not trust the sleazy ghost, he _had_ told the truth about Phantom. And he was, at the moment, our only viable option for escape. "Why not?" I asked, trying to keep my voice gentle. "He's probably our best shot."

Phantom's shoulders drooped. He didn't turn to look at me. "He's also an evil, conniving, manipulative nutcase," the boy said, his arms folded across his chest. "He's…" Phantom paused, then twisted around to gaze at me. There was a long beat of silence as the boy stared at me. "He's like me, you know."

I froze for a long second, my mouth slightly open. _Like you? As in... _"He's… There's more than one ghost like you?"

His lips twisted. "Couple of us," he said, eyes dropping to stare at the ground. "But there's something wrong with him. I don't think he really has a soul anymore. Nobody with a soul could be that amoral and evil."

"Why not?"

He shrugged. "I dunno." Sliding to the ground, he sighed. "It's not like I _ever_ want to have a heart-to-heart with him about it." He shook his head. "Besides, the ghosts don't ever go around calling _him_ an aberration of nature. Just me."

I pushed those thoughts to the side, trying to force myself to stay on topic. Escape was the first priority. The scientific mess surrounding the idea of living ghosts had to wait. Once I was back home, I could spend months researching this and having all the mental breakdowns I needed to. Right now, I didn't have the time. "But he _is_ our best shot."

"Yeah, but at what cost?" Phantom asked darkly. "Just trust me. Whatever it is he's selling, you don't want it."

"Even if the other option is death?" I asked.

"We'll get out of here," he said. The inhuman greenish mist in his eyes swirled like whirlpools. "Nobody comes out of a deal with Plasmius happy."

I stared at him. Then slowly nodded. He knew a lot more about the situation than I did. I would have to listen to what he said - at least until we ran out of other options. Phantom was only sixteen, after all. _I have to make sure we both get out of here. If that involves making a deal with Plasmius, so be it. I'll deal with the repercussions later. _"So. Rescue is out," I said, gesturing towards the defunct rescue beacon. "Plasmius too." _For now, anyways._

"So's giving up my soul," he added with a shudder. "Trust me on that one. It'd be bad."

I was surprised that the boy thought that would be something I'd consider as a possibility. I'd spent years working on my career as a ghost hunter and making sure the ghosts saw me as a threat - but surely I came across as human enough to realize a child's soul wasn't up for bargaining with. Even if that soul were attached to a ghost? _Jack and I have a lot of mistakes to make up for. _I nodded, keeping my thoughts to myself. _Escape first__. _"We need a new option..."

Before I could formulate more of a thought than that, he rolled to his feet and said, "Being on the other side of the bars would be a good start." He walked up to the door of the cell and kicked it. The sound of his boot hitting metal rang loudly through the deserted hallways. "Guard!" he yelled.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

Phantom grinned at me. The confident aura of the ghost boy was back in place - the child that had just been telling me secrets was buried back under the facade of a carefree ghostly hero. I was pretty sure it was an act, but I wasn't going to call him on it. If I needed logic and science and the calm of my training as a ghost hunter to keep me together at that moment, I certainly couldn't gainsay his choice. "Getting on the other side of the bars. Watch."

I wasn't sure what his plan was, but I settled into a crouch, ready to deal with whatever happened next. It took a few seconds before something green and vaguely glob-shaped floated into view. There was a simple armor pattern etched into its skin, its arms crossed over its chest.

"I demand a different cell," Phantom said, trying to sound imperious. When the guard didn't answer, he scowled. "I refuse to be in a cell with this _human_ any longer."

The guard simply floated away.

"Nice try," I said.

"Oh, I'm not done yet." Phantom paced the length of the cell a few times, then rolled his shoulders. "Lather, rinse, repeat." His foot slammed out again, repeating the sound. "Guard!"

The guard appeared again. Glowing green eyes fixed on the boy. It didn't seem to care that it had been there moments earlier.

"I'm hungry. Take me to the cafeteria."

When the guard just continued its drift and vanished down the hallway, Phantom crossed his arms and frowned. Green flashed in his eyes. "I hate old ghosts. They can't even talk properly anymore." Then his foot flicked out, making another ringing bang. "Guard!"

"Let it go," I told him. This wasn't going to get us out of the cell. We would have to come up with a new plan - _any_ plan at all would be nice at the moment. Simply getting to the other side of the bars wasn't much of an improvement. There were still a million ghosts between us and the human world.

"Eh," he said, holding up a finger in a gesture to get me to wait. "I'll find the magic phrase. Give me a second." The guard appeared for a third time. Phantom grinned, holding out his arms like he was giving up. "I wish to plead guilty before the Observants. Take me to them."

The guard slowly uncrossed his arms and dug around for the keys.

"Hah," Phantom said to me, a huge grin on his face. "I knew I'd figure out how to get us out of here."

"That doesn't solve..." I looked past him, noticing that several other ghosts had gathered down the hallway. Before I could mention them, the door swung open with a loud squeal. Phantom stepped out of the cell and landed a solid punch on the guard. The ghost reeled backwards and collapsed to the ground.

"There!" Phantom turned to me. "We're practically home free." He must have caught my gaze, because he glanced over his shoulder. His body drooped and he swore. "Or not."

The sharp points of several spears surrounded Phantom. He glanced around, obviously debating whether or not to fight this latest development. Then his gaze met mine and his hands loosened from their tight fists, his body relaxing.

"Wazzup?" the boy drawled, turning his attention back to the guards and feigning nonchalance. "Are we going someplace?"

"The Observants are ready to give their verdict," one of the ghosts grunted. His eyes were glowing a fierce red when he turned to look at me. "You both will come with us."

"Already?" Phantom looked startled. "But it's only been, like, an hour."

The guard smirked, moving his spear point so that it pressed against Phantom's throat. A little rivulet of green dripped against the boy's pale skin. "As if they didn't know how they would vote before you were even captured," he said dismissively. "Tie their hands."

I held still as one of the nameless guards entered the cell, a thick rope in its hands. When it moved towards me, holding out the rope, I tensed. My hands came up defensively.

"Maddie," Phantom said, his voice soft.

My gaze flickered over to the boy, who was allowing his hands to be tied behind his back. _Don't fight this_. He rolled his eyes, then shrugged and grinned.

It went against everything I believed in to _allow_ myself to be captured by these goons. But, when the guard floated behind me and grabbed my arms, I just stood still. Perhaps the child knew something I didn't. I scowled when the guard jerked a bit too hard, digging the rough rope into the skin of my wrists.

Phantom was already several dozen feet down the hallway with his entourage of nearly a dozen guards before I was led from my cell. Only two ghosts - the old, blurry-looking one that had been stationed outside our cell and the one tying my arms - remained behind with me. I thought about fighting. Surely I could get away from these two ghosts…

But what would I do from there? I was in the middle of some sort of ghostly jail. Even if I could get free of these ghosts, I would be recaptured.

"Keep walking," the guard holding my arm said.

Gritting my teeth, I followed the order. Head high, I was determined to look like I was being escorted as an honored guest.

It wasn't until I was most of the way down the hallway that I glanced down at the floor. My mind traced back to Phantom's earlier comment. _It's worse when you start to think about the floor and what you're actually sitting on._ Forcing my thoughts on keeping the ground solid under my feet, I fought back a smile. I wasn't in the cage anymore. The bars were no longer holding me in place.

Despite the millions of ghosts between me and freedom, escape was looking more and more likely.

* * *

The main hall was crowded with one-eyed ghosts. Observants. From his explanation, it sounded like they functioned as some sort of post-human government. Their eyes were focused on me as I was escorted to the large cage in the center of the room. Thankfully, they didn't bother with the hood over my head this time.

Phantom was already inside the cage. Oddly, the boy's presence made the cage look a lot less intimidating. My heart beat faster as the cage loomed overhead. The guard released my arm and slammed the door shut behind me. The lock rattled. The large chair in the front of the room that had held the main one-eyed ghost was empty and the room was filled with the soft buzz of hundreds of ghosts' conversations. I held still a moment, my eyes closed, focusing on reigning in the emotions that were threatening to overflow again.

Calm. Cool. Collected. _You can do this, Maddie. Freak out later when you're safe in your own bedroom._

Phantom walked up up to me and started to untie the ropes binding my arms behind my back. "Fancy meeting you here," he muttered sourly.

I hummed a response. My heart rate was back to normal, the slight trembling that had been in my arms fading quickly. Eying the glowing metal bars, I wondered if they were as solid as the bars on the jail cell had been. Getting out of the cage didn't get me much close to freedom - I was still surrounded by ghosts - but it would mean something to know I wasn't trapped in this little cage. "Now what?"

"_Now,_" Phantom said under his breath as the rope fell away and my arms were freed, "you find out if we're in a human-proof cage without letting the ghosts know you're doing it."

I glanced at him; the comment was an almost perfect mirror of my own thoughts. Despite the glow of his skin, he was seeming more and more human all the time - and less and less like a child. "Then what?" I asked, uncertain of what the boy was planning on doing once we were out of the cage. Hopefully he had some sort of long-range plan.

Phantom grinned, keeping his voice to a near whisper. "I'm good with running away." He gestured towards the ghosts surrounding us. "And this looks like the perfect opportunity to practice flying really fast."

With a nod, I edged towards the bars. I was nearly there, planning on leaning against them and feeling if they were really as solid as they looked, when the large double-doors banged open. Several of the green guards dragged a limp figure into the room. "Jack," I whispered. My heart jumped into my throat at the sight of the familiar orange jumpsuit. A black cloth sack over his head prevented me from seeing my husband's face.

"We located the other human," one of the guards said as they carted Jack towards the cage. "Where do you want it?"

"In the cage," the guard next to the door said. "Is it dead?"

My heart nearly stopped at that question. The guard's shrug wasn't a helpful answer. A key was slid into the lock and the door opened. Several dozen guards crowded near the cage's door and held up spears and swords as Jack was carried in and dropped near my feet. The guards retreated quickly and the door locked behind them.

I dropped to my knees, pulling the sack from Jack's head. "Oh, Jack," I breathed as my fingers brushed a large red spot on his forehead. The man was unconscious. Red stained his jumpsuit in various places - it appeared as though Jack hadn't gone down without a fight.

I glanced up at Phantom. The boy was standing still, his eyes fixed on Jack's face. He swallowed heavily before his gaze flickered up to mine. For that moment, the facade flickered. I could see past the cocky, overconfident attitude the ghost boy liked to exude. Behind it was fear. "He'll be fine," I said.

The child's gaze drifted back down to Jack a moment. "Yeah," he whispered before seeming to physically shake himself out of his daze. "Yeah." Despite the tightening of his fists and the squaring of his shoulders and the hardening of his eyes, I could tell that Phantom's confidence was broken.

Phantom was our only real hope for escape at the moment. _I can't let him fall apart right now. _"We'll be fine," I asserted, meeting his gaze with confidence.

"I can't carry you both," he breathed. He closed his eyes, running a hand through his hair, unable to look at me. "I can only carry one of you." His words sounded broken and forced.

Those words were like a punch to my gut as I suddenly caught on to the look that had been in Phantom's eyes. Jack's body was warm and solid under my hand. "You'll take Jack-"

Phantom shook his head, the muscles of his jaw working a few moments before he spoke. "You're lighter. We'll have a better chance. I'll have to come back for him." He let out a short breath, his eyes still closed. "Can you get through the cage?" When his eyes finally opened, the green in his eyes was swirling slowly. The ghost-hero was back in his eyes, the emotions shuttered away, logic coming through.

_A thousand years of torment. _"Will he still be alive when you get back?" I asked, trying to disregard the idea that a _child_ was planning come back for Jack alone. That was a bridge we would cross if we came to it.

"Can you get through the cage or not?" he repeated slowly, still attempting to keep his voice at a whisper.

I knew that life wasn't fair. I knew something of sacrifice and making hard choices. I _understood_ the boy had made the choice to save me first. It was the logical choice, no doubt helped by the past hour of talking we'd done in the cell.

But Jack was my husband. The love of my life. I couldn't leave him here, unconscious and alone. And I didn't miss the fact that Phantom hadn't answered my question about Jack's odds of survival alone in this world.

If I left him here, I probably wouldn't see him again.

I leaned against the bars of the cage. They were solid only for a moment before the metal seemed to mist away and allow my shoulder to slide through. I pulled myself back into the cage before the guards could notice. "Yes, I can," I said, gently touching Jack's face.

There wasn't a choice as to who Phantom would save first; I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I left Jack here to die. Besides, I was the adult here - it was my responsibility to step up and make this choice. I wouldn't put Jack's life on the boy's shoulders, not after everything else I'd done to him.

"We have to go," Phantom whispered, crouching next to me. "The sooner we leave, the sooner I can come back for him."

"You're going to take him first."

"No. I'm not sure I can get _myself_ out of here, much less with you too." Phantom touched my hand. "I _have_ to take you first. He'll be fine." The boy didn't sound like he believed his own lie.

I was going to demand the ghost boy took Jack first, it was _my_ life to put in the balance, when the buzzing of conversation died. There was the sound of footsteps.

Both Phantom and I looked up at the large throne in the front of the room. The one-eyed ghost swaddled in layers of fabrics was walking towards his chair. Shadowing the one-eye's footsteps was the ghost that had come to visit us in our cell. Plasmius. He was scowling, arms over his chest. When his red eyes met mine, the glower deepened. It was obvious something wasn't going his way.

"Come to order!" came a shout as the one-eyed ghost settled into its chair. "The Council is in session."

Phantom's fingers - which were still on my hand - tightened. He captured my fingers and slowly drew my hand away from Jack's face.

"Has the council reached a verdict on the case of these two humans?" the main one-eyed ghost said, waving its hand dismissively towards the cage.

The hundreds of one-eyed ghosts massed in the chamber nodded as one. One of the ghosts - indistinguishable from the others - separated from the group and flew to the front of the room, handing an envelope to the ghost on the throne before disappearing back into the crowd.

The envelope was torn open and a piece of glowing paper pulled out. "Ah, a unanimous decision, even," the ghost murmured. I couldn't tear my eyes off its sharp grin as it lowered the paper. "The high council of the Observants finds you guilty of the creation of an aberration of nature. You have been sentenced to a thousand years of torment in the Vortex of Pain."

"They'll die," Phantom spoke up. His voice broke on the second word.

Up on the stage, Plasmius seemed to be stewing on something, his red eyes fixed on the one-eyed ghost sitting on the throne.

"In a world full of the dead, what's two more?" the ghost sneered. "Alive or dead, it matters little to me. They will complete their thousand years before they will be allowed to leave." It crumpled the paper and envelope and dropped them to the ground. "Now, on to the other matter the council needs to discuss: the aberration known as _Phantom_."


End file.
